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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26465785">CrashCon Into Me</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArcticLucie/pseuds/ArcticLucie'>ArcticLucie</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Roswell New Mexico (TV 2019)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alex Manes Deserves Nice Things, Flirting, Fluff, Getting Back Together, M/M</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 08:26:42</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,018</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26465785</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArcticLucie/pseuds/ArcticLucie</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>A year after his father died, Alex finds himself back at CrashCon looking for closure. But all he really wants to find is his way back to Michael.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Michael Guerin/Alex Manes</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>144</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>CrashCon Into Me</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Alex hadn’t expected his evening to take the turn that it did. He had planned to grab dinner with Maria at the Crashdown, then he thought he’d go to CrashCon and dance on the spot where his dad had died a year ago. Metaphorically speaking. His therapist suggested the visit might offer him closure, but he didn’t think it was his dad he needed it from.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Then Michael had spotted him and Maria at the diner and invited himself over for a milkshake. It sounded harmless enough at the time, even though he half expected it to feel weird. Michael slid in beside Maria, and he shut down any residual feelings he had about the two of them immediately. Look at him, being a semi functioning adult. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The therapy helped.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Alex had tried to move on after everything that happened between the three of them, but even a year later, he had trouble with that. Maybe because he and Michael hadn’t found their way back to each other yet, though he expected them to. Every time he caught sight of Michael in town, he expected something to click back into place between them, but it hadn’t. And he hated that he wanted it so much, that he couldn’t let it go. That he couldn’t let Michael go. But he didn’t want to. Not really.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Y’all going to CrashCon?” Michael asked before the tip of his straw disappeared between his lips, head cocked to the side and looking like a whole goddamn snack. And Alex couldn’t deny that it still did things to him. Seventeen all over again.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Maria scrunched up her face. “No, gotta work.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I think I might stop by,” Alex said. “It can’t be any worse than last year’s.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You mean when your dad tried to murder us and your brother shot him?” Michael asked.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“That’s exactly what I meant, Guerin,” Alex replied, leveling him with a pointed look. If either intended it as a barb, their animosity soon dissolved into cheeky smiles.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“God, your dad was such a dick.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I know. He was the worst.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“He really was,” Maria agreed.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“To dead assholes, and moving the fuck on,” Alex said as he raised his half empty milkshake. The three of them clinked glasses and slipped into lighter conversation.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Small town life meant he had a good sense of what Michael had been up to lately, but it felt nice to hear it from him, to have an actual conversation with him for once. And the ease of it had Alex’s mind flooding with optimism. They could do this. They could start over. Sometimes you had to burn the forest down to make way for a better one. Perhaps their seeds had finally begun to sprout.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Well, I gotta head back to work,” Maria said before slurping up the last drops of melted ice cream in her glass.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“And I should probably head to the Con. Don’t wanna miss the fireworks this time,” Alex said. He fished out his wallet and waved them both off when they offered to chip in on the bill. “No, I got it. This was nice.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah, it was.” Maria squeezed his arm across the table and smiled at him then shouldered into Michael. “Let me out, Guerin.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yes, ma’am.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>They all stood and started for the door, Michael holding it open for them both on their way out. Then Maria waved goodbye and left them standing in front of the diner unsure of where to go from there. He didn’t want to say goodbye to Michael, not yet, not when things felt steady between them for the first time in a long time, but he couldn’t find the voice to say it.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Mind if I walk with you?” Michael asked, saving them both the trouble of an awkward parting of the ways.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Alex hummed as he nodded, wanted to scream yes, but he didn’t. Instead, he went with a mumbled “sure” and a hopeful smile.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>They strolled down Main Street past all the little shops packed with tourists on their way to the fairgrounds. The occasional brush of their shoulders had adrenaline spiking in Alex’s veins, the gentle hand on his back when Michael guided them through a crowd sent sparks of heat shooting down his spine, and the genuine smiles they exchanged left him buzzing and breathless.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He could almost feel the electricity in the air pulsing around them, and he wanted this to be it. The thing he’d waited his whole life for. Or the last decade of it anyway. He wanted them to get it right this time, and he’d put in the work over the last year to make that happen. He’d earned a happy ending; the universe fucking owed him one after all the shit he’d had to wade through his whole life. And he wanted to collect.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I buy the tickets, you buy the popcorn?” Michael asked when they arrived at the front gates, once again sparing them both an unwelcome goodbye.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Sounds fair,” Alex agreed. “But I’m not riding the tilt-a-whirl with you this time.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Michael looked offended. “I had food poisoning last time.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Did you?” he asked, still not buying that excuse all these years later.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yes,” Michael ground out.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Uh huh, tell that to the pair of Vans you still owe me.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Oh, here we go,” he said with an affectionate roll of his eyes as they headed through the gates. “You’re never gonna let that go, are you?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Not until I get my sneakers, Guerin.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Michael titled his head back and spoke to the heavens. “Let it be known, Alex Manes is not a cheap date.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>In the past, a comment like that would’ve sent Alex into a shame spiral of internalized homophobia and embarrassment, but he’d gotten pretty good at shutting down those negative emotions lately. Instead, he poked Michael in the ribs and smirked when he glared back at him. “You’re damn right I’m not. And that little jab just cost you a churro.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Michael swayed into him, smile wide and shoulders bumping as he whispered, “Worth it.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>After splitting a churro and chatting up Liz for a bit between sales at her father’s booth, they found themselves meandering along the midway, coming to a halt at the outer edges of the perimeter. The crowd had thinned out, the sounds a soft murmur under the twinkling lights.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“So, you seeing anyone?” Michael asked, dragging the toe of his boot through the dirt before he looked up at Alex through his lashes.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Alex ignored all the butterflies that look set free inside his chest. “Nope, you?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Nope,” he replied as he closed the gap between them, the scent of oil and rain sending Alex’s senses into a tizzy. “But I’ve had my eye on someone for a while now.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Oh yeah? Who’s the lucky girl?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Michael scoffed but played along. “You don’t know her. She goes to another school.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Alex laughed as he shook his head fondly. “Is it the same </span>
  <em>
    <span>girl</span>
  </em>
  <span> that conveniently stood you up when I happened to come home after Basic? Because the more I think about it, the more I wonder if that was just an elaborate ruse to get me to go to CrashCon with you instead.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“It worked didn’t it?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Alex could only smile in reply. It very much had.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He didn’t want to fight this anymore, the inevitable, the constant pull between them that made being apart so damn hard, that made falling back into each other so damn easy. So he gave himself permission to jump, to take a leap of faith, and hope they wouldn’t screw it all up this time, hope they’d worked out enough of the kinks in themselves that they could straighten out all the ones lingering between them.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>His hands found Michael’s hips, not pulling him in, not pushing him away, just resting in the place they were always meant to be.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’ve been thinking a lot lately and trying to do the work I need to do to move past all my father’s parental failings. And I’m still so far off from the man I want to be.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Me too,” Michael added, a soft understanding shining bright in his eyes as his hands found solace on Alex’s biceps, a little squeeze giving him the strength to continue.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“But you gotta know you’re the one constant thing I keep coming back to. And I don’t just mean physically, I mean the scars that run deep below the surface. I can’t help but think that the important ones, the meaningful ones, the ones that run straight through my heart are all connected to you.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Alex,” Michael started, but Alex cut him off.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“No, I’m not done.” He tightened his grip on Michael’s hips to ground himself and to make sure Michael didn’t run before he could get the words out. “And I don’t mean that in a bad way. Because your scars are what make you who you are. They make me who I am. What I’m saying is that my scars are still healing, and I’m more than a little terrified that they’ll split right back open if we rush in guns blazing and rip off the bandaid prematurely.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What do you want from me, Alex?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You, Michael. I just want you, but the right way, with dates and courting and all that other romantic bullshit that we’ve always denied ourselves, that I’ve always denied myself... that I’ve denied us both.” He let out a sigh at that then pressed on after Michael gave him a soft understanding nod. “I wanna share the same milkshake at the diner and cuddle under a blanket in the back of your truck at the drive-in and kiss you on top of the ferris wheel. And I feel really silly for even wanting all this, but I do and I want to be honest with you about it. I need to be.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Then let’s do it,” Michael said, eyes earnest and Alex unable to find even an ounce of hesitation on his face. “‘Cause I want all that stuff with you too, Alex. Always have. You just weren’t ready, and maybe I wasn’t either. But I am now, and I think we both are. To do it right, to be better for each other. I want that. All of that. With you.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Alex tilted his head, a bashful blush blooming on his cheeks. “You don’t think it’s too cheesy then?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Oh absolutely, but I like cheese, and I like you, so let’s go steady.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Michael’s smug smirk had Alex groaning at the huge dork in his arms, but he leaned forward and pressed a chaste kiss to his lips anyway, delighting in the fact that he could, that this was happening, that he didn’t have to hide anymore. That after all their time apart, they’d found their way back to each other once more. Back home. And hopefully, this time for good.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“But about the ferris wheel,” Michael said, looking into the distance over Alex’s shoulder. “It’s a little cliche, don’t you think?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Alex followed his gaze to the flying saucer inspired boat ride.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Michael, no.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Michael, yes,” he said, his hands falling down Alex’s arms to twine their fingers together so he could tug him along.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“It’s the alien equivalent of the tunnel of love.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah, and? I’m an alien in need of a little lovin’.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>They shared an easy laugh, and despite his objections, Alex offered up no resistance.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’m not making out with you in there,” he insisted, though he tottered up beside Michael in line and leaned into him anyway.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“That’s what you said that time after Basic. And look how that turned out.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Alex smiled at the memory, knowing full well history would repeat itself tonight. It always did, but maybe they were finally old enough and wise enough to sidestep all the potholes. He sure hoped so, because he could think of a lot worse things than feeling seventeen again. And a life without Michael Guerin at his side was one of them.</span>
</p>
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